Midterm 1 and 2 Flashcards
What makes the processes of developing intuitive and research knowledge so different from one another?
Intuitive Knowledge: Comes from your gut feelings, instincts, or past experiences. It often happens naturally without much thought.
Research Knowledge: Comes from careful study, experiments, and analyzing information step by step.
Why is communication such an important part of the scientific method?
Communication is important in the scientific method because it helps scientists share their ideas, results, and discoveries with others.
Share Knowledge, Get Feedback, Work Together
Please provide an example of a significant Scientific revolution that reshaped how we see the world around us.
Plate Tectonics Theory
- What: Scientists discovered that Earth’s crust is made of moving plates that float on the mantle.
- Why It Matters:
- Explains earthquakes, volcanic activity, and mountain formation.
- Showed how continents move over time (continental drift).
- Impact: Revolutionized geology, helping us understand Earth’s structure and its dynamic processes.
Catastrophism
Earth was shaped by big, natural disaster events like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, etc
Gradualism
Earth was developed slow and over long periods of time
What is the Principle of Uniformitarianism and why is it important?
What: The idea that the processes shaping Earth today, like erosion, volcanism, and sedimentation, have worked in the same way throughout Earth’s history. In short, “the present is the key to the past.”
Why It’s Important:
Helps geologists understand Earth’s history by studying current processes.
What are the five characteristics that make index fossils suitable for establishing correlations between rock units?
1 Easily Indentifiable
2 Constantly show up in that portion of the rock record
3 lived all over the world (like humans)
4. were in huge abundance (like humans)
5 Had different morphology (like trilabites)
What are the 3 types of unconformities? Include a drawing.
- Angular unconformity
- Nonconformity
- Disconformity
How is the Hadean Eon fundamentally different from the rest of the units in the Geologic Timescale?
it’s before there was a rock record, because the early earth was constantly remelting rock, no rock was able to cool down enough to stay so it often
isn’t considered when looking at the rock record
3 mobile agents and what controls the type of sediment deposited by mobile agents in various locations?
Water/Ice, Wind, Gravity
Energy controls the type of sediment that is deposited in various locations. The more energy the mobile agents have, the more it is moved/how far.
Please draw a neatly schematic diagram of a mud-cracked bedding surface that clearly illustrates how you can use this sedimentary structure to determine which way is stratigraphically up in a stratified sequence. (Profile side and plan views)
Draw!
4 fundamental physical forces in nature
Gravitational Force: Pulls objects with mass toward each other.
It’s the weakest force but works over long distances.
Electromagnetic Force:
Causes electricity, magnetism, and light.
Works between things with electric charge and is much stronger than gravity.
Strong Nuclear Force:
Holds the nucleus of an atom together by keeping protons and neutrons bound.
It’s the strongest force but works only over tiny distances.
Weak Nuclear Force:
Causes certain types of radioactive decay (like how some atoms break down over time).
It’s weaker than the strong nuclear force and works over short distances.
Give 3 reasons why some isotopes are unstable.
Too Many Neutrons or Protons:
Imbalance makes the nucleus unstable.
Nucleus Is Too Large:
Strong force can’t hold the nucleus together in heavy elements.
High Energy:
Extra energy in the nucleus causes the isotope to decay.
What is a closure (blocking) temperature and why is it important when working with radioactive isotope?
The closure temperature is the temperature below which a mineral becomes a “closed system” for a specific radioactive isotope. Below this temperature, isotopes and their decay products are trapped within the mineral, and no longer escape or exchange with the environment.
Importance:
Reveals thermal history: Helps geologists understand cooling events and geological processes.
C
T
S
F
A
F
C-Composition: The types of minerals or materials that make up a rock.
T-Texture: The size, shape, and arrangement of grains or crystals in a rock.
S-Structures: The physical features in rocks caused by geological processes.
F-Form: The overall shape or appearance of a rock or mineral.
A-Association: The relationship between different minerals, rocks, or fossils found together.
F-Fossils: Preserved remains or traces of ancient life, often found in sedimentary rocks.
The Principle of ________ helps us to interpret the relative-age relationships of rocks/fragments that are contained within another rock.
Inclusions
The Principle of _________ allows geologist to establish relative-age relationships among sequences of strata that are exposed at geographically separate locations.
Correlation
The _________ is the primary lithostraigraphic unit within the lithostratigraphic hierarchy. These units comprise lithologically distinct collections of rocks that are recognizable and mappable at quadrangle scale.
Formation
___________ uses growth rings on trees as a basis for determining the actual age of objects.
Dendrochronology
___________ uses the presence or absence of fossils to establish relative age of rock units.
Biostratigraphy
The _________ describes the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom.
Atomic Number
The __________ is the sum of all protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom.
Atomic Mass
Re-order oldest to youngest:
Cambrian
Carboniferous
Cretaceous
Devonian
Jurassic
Ordovician
Permian
Silurian
Triassic
Cambrian
Ordovician
Silurian
Devonian
Carboniferous
Permian
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Nuclear fusion in the cores of stars is capable of synthesizing elements up to ______, but nothing larger.
Iron
Add ages:
End of the Proterozoic Eon
Beginning of the Cenozoic Era
Beginning of the Hadean Eon
End of the Pliocene Epoch
End of the Permian Period
End of the Proterozoic Eon - 540 Ma
Beginning of the Cenozoic Era -65 Ma
Beginning of the Hadean Eon - 4.6 Ga
End of the Pliocene Epoch 1.8 Ma
End of the Permian Period 250 Ma
Steno
Physician, Naturalist, Bishop, and Saint that first recognized relative age relationships in stratified rocks
